Charity

1475/1480

Mino da Fiesole

Artist, Florentine, 1429 - 1484

Carved in high relief in white marble, a woman and the baby she holds are framed within a curved arch. The woman’s body faces us, but she turns her face to look down at the baby tucked into her left arm, to our right. The woman’s long hair is pulled back under a twisted band, and a few tendrils fall on her face. Her nose is pointed, and she has full lips over a narrow chin. Her dress is fastened on the chest with a button or brooch and is tied across the chest and high around the waist. The garment has elbow-length sleeves, and it falls in a swag across her hips over a long skirt that stops just short of her sandaled feet. The fabric is sheer so the nipple we can see is visible, and the fabric gathers in fine, shallow folds. Her other elbow is bent and held by her side, and the fingers on both hands are noticeably long. The child turns a chubby face up to the woman and crosses his hands over his chest. He is covered only by a cloth across his middle, and he has short, wavy hair. Pudgy rolls make creases on his neck, arms, and especially chunky thighs. The niche in which they stand has a fluted shell in the rounded portion above molding. The remaining niche is smooth, and the entire sculpture is set into a tan-colored wall.

Media Options

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In the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Virtues were often personified by human figures carrying identifying attributes. Charity typically holds one or more children. As represented by Mino da Fiesole, a contemporary of Desiderio da Settignano and Antonio Rossellino, Charity and a companion piece Faith appear as slender young girls in clinging, layered gowns with fine pleats. Their heavy mantles are carved in distinctive, angular folds. Typical of Mino's style is the fine, precise, sharp-edged treatment of textile folds and locks of hair, giving these features an ornamental quality different from the softer approach of Desiderio and Antonio Rossellino.

Set in arched niches, the figures must have been intended as part of a monument combining architecture and sculpture, probably a wall tomb inside a church. The Virtues would represent reasons for the deceased person's good memory on earth and hopes for Paradise.

Faith and Charity stand on bases treated as little banks of clouds, as if they were already in heaven themselves. Hope, the third theological Virtue mentioned in Saint Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, might have completed such a group.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 5

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1864 by Charles Timbal [1821-1880], Paris; sold 1872 with his collection to Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his estate; purchased 1930 with the entire Dreyfus collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[1] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] Provenance prior to Mellon Trust is according to David Finley's notebook donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.
[2] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1883

  • Perkins, Charles. Historical Handbook of Italian Sculpture. London, 1883: 402.

1907

  • Vitry, Paul. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus: I. - La Sculpture." Les Arts 72 (December 1907): repro. 15, 20.

1937

  • Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: repro. opposite p. 26.

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 83.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 228, no. A-6.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 253, repro. 231.

1944

  • Duveen Brothers, Inc. Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America: A Catalog Raisonné with illustrations of Italian Renaissance Sculptures by the Great Masters which have passed through the House of Duveen. New York, 1944: figs. 120-121.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 156, repro.

  • Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 177, note 27, repro. 98, 100.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 162.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 143, repro.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 42.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 624, no. 963, repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 108, color repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 288, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 152, repro.

2013

  • Moskowitz, Anita F. Forging Authenticity: Bastianini and the Neo-Renaissance in Nineteenth-Century Florence. Florence, 2013: 54.

Wikidata ID

Q63809890

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